{"id":19136,"date":"2013-02-23T10:19:12","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T15:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=19136"},"modified":"2013-02-23T10:19:12","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T15:19:12","slug":"the-sequesters-meat-cleaver-approach-of-severe-arbitrary-and-brutal-cuts-will-eviscerate-education-energy-and-medical-research-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/02\/23\/the-sequesters-meat-cleaver-approach-of-severe-arbitrary-and-brutal-cuts-will-eviscerate-education-energy-and-medical-research-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"“The sequester\u2019s ‘meat-cleaver approach’ of ‘severe,’ ‘arbitrary’ and ‘brutal’ cuts will ‘eviscerate’ education, energy and medical research spending”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head for the hills! The sequester<\/a> is coming!<\/p>\n

As in: Batten down the hatches \u2014 the sequester will cut $85\u2009billion from this year\u2019s $3.6\u2009trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar \u2014 spending will be cut 2.3\u2009percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre \u2014 we must scrape by on 97.7\u2009percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming because the sequester will cut a sum $25\u2009billion larger than was just shoveled out the door (supposedly, but not actually) for victims of Hurricane Sandy! Or: Heaven forfend, the sequester will cut 47\u2009percent as much as was spent on the AIG bailout! Or: Famine, pestilence and locusts will come when the sequester causes federal spending over 10 years to plummet from $46\u2009trillion all the way down to $44.8\u2009trillion! Or: Grass will grow in the streets of America\u2019s cities if the domestic agencies whose budgets have increased 17 percent under President Obama must endure a 5\u2009percent cut!<\/p>\n

The sequester has forced liberals to clarify their conviction that whatever the government\u2019s size is at any moment, it is the bare minimum necessary to forestall intolerable suffering. At his unintentionally hilarious hysteria session Tuesday, Obama said: The sequester\u2019s \u201cmeat-cleaver approach\u201d of \u201csevere,\u201d \u201carbitrary\u201d and \u201cbrutal\u201d cuts will \u201ceviscerate\u201d education, energy and medical research spending. \u201cAnd already, the threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier that was supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cForced\u201d? The Navy did indeed cite the sequester when delaying deployment of the USS Truman<\/em>. In the high-stakes pressure campaign against Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons program, U.S. policy has been to have two carriers in nearby waters. Yet the Navy is saying it cannot find cuts to programs or deployments less essential than the Truman<\/em> deployment. The Navy\u2019s participation in the political campaign to pressure Congress into unraveling the sequester is crude, obvious and shameful, and it should earn the Navy\u2019s budget especially skeptical scrutiny by Congress.<\/p>\n

The Defense Department\u2019s civilian employment has grown 17\u2009percent since 2002. In 2012, defense spending on civilian personnel was 21\u2009percent higher than in 2002. And the Truman<\/em> must stay in Norfolk? This is, strictly speaking, unbelievable. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Head for the hills! The sequester is coming! As in: Batten down the hatches \u2014 the sequester will cut $85\u2009billion from this year\u2019s $3.6\u2009trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar \u2014 spending will be cut 2.3\u2009percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre \u2014 we must scrape by on 97.7\u2009percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,25,84,13],"tags":[158,697,617,698,71,30],"class_list":["post-19136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucracy","category-economics","category-government","category-usa","tag-barackobama","tag-budget","tag-carriers","tag-congress","tag-debt","tag-navy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-4YE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19138,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136\/revisions\/19138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}